In Through the Side Door

If you grew up in a Manor Ridge house you knew there was one rule above all others: no one ever used the front door.

As odd as this sounds, it was a fact. Nobody ever went to anyone’s front door – you always went and knocked at the side door.

I had a friend named Greg and his family lived on Hemlock. His was one of the very few houses that did not have a proper side door. His side door was inside a screened-in porch. So I had to knock at his front door – which always seemed odd.

Another friend I had was Glenn who lived on Manor Ridge Drive. Glenn’s house had two front doors, but you knew which one to knock on - so it was a side door by default.

Yet another friend, Matt, also lived on Manor Ridge Drive and he had no side door but a back door. So that was where we knocked, the back.

But if the house had a side door – you went for it like a bee to honey.

There were two times per year where it was acceptable to knock on the front door of a Manor Ridge house.

The first was Halloween. What ever was the fastest, most expedient way to get to the adults handing out the candy, that was the door you went to. All rules were off on that glorious day of Trick-or-Treating.

The other was also seasonal – Christmas. To be precise - Christmas caroling. Caroling was something people often did at Christmas back then, but not anymore. I recall groups of carolers coming to our door most every Christmas, but by the 1980’s, you seldom saw or heard them, and then they stopped coming all together. The carolers did not have to memorize all the lyrics. It was common for carolers to have a cheat sheet - caroling sheets printed by WGAL TV 8. Channel 8 must have printed those caroling sheets every year – people always seemed to have them. How sad that caroling is almost gone as a Christmas ritual. Anyway, it was acceptable to go to a front door if you were caroling.

In Manor Ridge - front doors were strictly for show. It was the side door that was utilitarian.

Even today – if someone comes and knocks on my front door, I think it is odd. But anyone who grew up with me in Manor Ridge, when they come to visit my house – they always go to the side door. It’s automatic.

Those exiting the house were also required to use any door but the front door. Really, think about it. How many times do you remember anyone exiting a Manor Ridge front door? How many times did you exit using your front door? Nope, you used the side door, and so did anyone else in your house. Again, it was automatic.

Only visitors from the outside world (non-Manor Ridgers) used front doors. It was almost as if Manor Ridge front doors were portals to another time and dimension - a Hawthorne Drive or Temple Avenue Star Gate.

Front doors were typically decorated by mom with seasonal stuff – a wreath or garland at Christmas, a turkey and cornucopia at Thanksgiving, Easter eggs and bunny rabbits at Easter, and so on. Being a kid you could tell the season of the year, the month of the year, simply by looking at what Manor Ridge mom's had placed on their front doors. There's Abe Lincoln? Must be mid to late January. Is that a four leaf clover? Must be mid March. And to add to the door decorations, the shrubbery and flowers next to the door were immaculately maintained.

Side and back doors were another thing entirely. There it was permissible to have to run the gauntlet of bicycles, sports equipment, and lawn mowers. This is where Bootsy the mailman brought your mail and the milkman brought your milk. A milkbox at the front door? Au contraire. If you want to see what a Manor Ridge side door looked like, circa 1968, take a look at my previous blog post.